subject: The Concepts of Adult Education [print this page] The Concepts of Adult Education The Concepts of Adult Education
ADULT LEARNING THEORY
Adult education is a process in which adults acquire knowledge or skills through cognitive learning experiences. It is an extension of what has been learned in childhood. Rather than following a specific theoretical approach, adult learning is based on the practical approach of learning newmethods. The adults themselves determine what they want to learn; it is not the adult educators who determine what is to be learned. The adult learners learn or try to acquire more knowledge about a situation because of the economical, sociological, psychological and physiological impacts that can be derived from learning the process at a certain time. This is to say that adult education is primarily based on the sociological and economical changes in the society. It is also based on the psychological and physiological changes of individual adults.
More adults try to acquire new knowledge or update or "brush up" the old skills due to changes in their life or environmental changes. The reasons why adults learn may be due to the socio-economical conditions of our society.In adulthood, even self-directed learning rarely occurs in splendid isolation from the world in which learner lives; it is intimately related to that world and affected by it. As it was pointed out in my books, what adults want to learn andwhat is offered to them, and the ways in which adults learn are determine by the adults themselves, and to large extent, by the nature of the society at any particular time. It can also be said that the nature of society at any particular point in time determines the relative emphasis exerted on adult learners. One may articulate that adults will try to acquire knowledge about their environment since there are always innovative processes that take place in the society. I think that as we grow older, we tend to learn more, and there is always a call for more education because of the changes in our lives and society
